Deacon White

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other people named James White, see James White (disambiguation).
For the Canadian football coach, see William Deacon White.
Deacon White
White in 1888
Third baseman / Catcher
Born: (1847-12-02)December 2, 1847
Caton, New York, U.S.
Died: July 7, 1939(1939-07-07) (aged 91)
St. Charles Township, Illinois, U.S.
Batted: Left
Threw: Right
MLB debut
May 4, 1871, for the Cleveland Forest Citys
Last MLB appearance
October 4, 1890, for the Buffalo Bisons
MLB statistics
Batting average.312
Hits2,067
Runs batted in988
Teams
  National Association of Base Ball Players
Cleveland Forest Citys (1868–1870)
  League player
Cleveland Forest Citys (1871–1872)
Boston Red Stocking (1873–1875)
Chicago White Stockings
(1876)
Boston Red Stockings (1877)
Cincinnati Reds
(1878–1879)
Cincinnati Stars (1880)
Buffalo Bisons
(1881–1885)
Detroit Wolverines (1886–1888)
Pittsburgh Pirates (1889)
Buffalo Bisons
(1890)
  League manager
Forest City of Cleveland (1872)
Cincinnati Reds
(1879)
Career highlights and awards
Member of the National
Baseball Hall of Fame
Induction2013
Vote87.5%
Election methodPre-Integration Era Committee[1]

James Laurie "Deacon" White (December 2, 1847 – July 7, 1939) was an American

Chicago White Stockings
. Although he was already 28 when the NL was established, White played 15 seasons in the major leagues, completing a 23-year career at the top levels of the sport.

In 1871, White was the first batter to come to the plate in the National Association, the first professional baseball league. After compiling a .347

2013
.

Early life

White was born in Caton, New York, the son of farmer Lester S. White (born c. 1820) and his wife Adeline (born c. 1823). The couple had at least eight children:[2][3] Oscar Leroy[4] (born c. 1844), James, Elmer Melville (born c. 1851), William (1854 – 1911), Phebe Davis[5] (born c. 1856), Estelle (born c. 1858), George (c. 1862 – after 1939[6]) and Hattie (born c. 1867); they also adopted a girl named Phebe Maynard (born c. 1876) when they were in their fifties.[7] White's ancestors likely immigrated to America during the Colonial period.[8] His cousin Elmer White also played baseball professionally as James' teammate in 1871; in March 1872, Elmer was the first recorded professional baseball player to die.[9]

Baseball career

White (bottom right) on the 1869 Forest City Club of Cleveland.

White learned baseball from a

Pittsburgh
.

White led his league in batting average twice (including the NA in 1875), and in RBI three times (including the NA in 1873); not until 1953, when Roy Campanella topped the NL, would another catcher lead his league in RBI. White started out early enough to have played against the undefeated Cincinnati Red Stockings of 1869, baseball's first all-professional team. He was considered the best barehanded catcher of his time, as well as one of the best third baseman during the second half of his career; his combined total of games caught in the NA and NL was eventually passed by Pop Snyder in 1881. On May 16, 1884 White recorded 11 assists at third base, which remains the major league record for a nine-inning game although eight other players have since tied the mark. In the rough-and-tumble 19th-century baseball era, White was a nonsmoking, Bible-toting, church-going deacon.

In 1889, the contracts of White and teammate Jack Rowe were sold to the Pittsburgh Alleghenys, but the pair refused to report unless they were paid additional money, leading to a protracted dispute. Eventually the two men were paid, with White telling a reporter, "We appreciate the money, but we ain't worth it. Rowe's arm is gone. I'm over 40 and my fielding ain't so good, though I can still hit some. But I will say this. No man is going to sell my carcass unless I get half." Complaints like this were part of the reason that the Players' League was formed in 1890.

According to historian Lee Allen in The National League Story (1961), White believed that the earth is flat. He tried and failed to convince his teammates that they were living on a flat plane and not a globe; they ridiculed him. Then one asked to be convinced, and the Deacon gave him an argument suited to the hypothesis that the earth is not really turning. He convinced the teammate but the argument would not prove that the earth is not a sphere.

White's playing career ended after the 1890 season. Over the 20-year period from 1871 to 1890, White batted .312 and had more RBI (988) than any player except Cap Anson, and also ranked fourth in career games (1,560), at bats (6,624), hits (2,067) and total bases (2,595). He also ended his career ranking fourth in major league history in games (826) and total chances (3,016) at third base, fifth in assists (1,618), and sixth in putouts (954) and double plays (118).

White managed the minor league club

New York–Pennsylvania League in 1891. He has been incorrectly credited with managing the McAlester Miners of the Oklahoma–Arkansas–Kansas League (1907) and the Tulsa Oilers of the Oklahoma–Kansas League
(1908). Both teams were actually managed by Harry B. "Deacon" White.

Family and later life

White married Marium Van Arsdale (born 1851 in Moravia, New York) on April 24, 1871.[11] For much of his career, they lived on his farm in Corning, New York; they moved to Buffalo after he joined the Bisons in 1881. Their only child, Grace Hughson White, was born in Buffalo on September 8, 1882.[12] The family moved to Detroit when White began playing for the Wolverines, but soon returned to Buffalo; by 1900 he was operating a successful livery stable there.[13]

Sometime after 1900, the Whites sent Grace to Mendota College in Mendota, Illinois, beginning a family association with the Advent Christian school which would endure across multiple generations. By 1909, James and Marium had also moved to Mendota, where they became the head residents at Maple Hall, the young ladies' dormitory, until 1912. On August 15, 1912, Grace married fellow Mendota alumnus Roger A. Watkins at the dormitory;[14] that year, the college had relocated fifty miles to the east, becoming Aurora College. Marium died on April 30, 1914, in Mendota; one of Aurora's students recalled of "Ma" White: "She was of a cheery disposition, with a word and a smile for all; mingling with the girls as one of us; giving kindly counsel and encouragement. Her interest in each girl is expressed in her own words: 'I am only doing what I would like to have some one else do for my girl, if she were away from home.' Words cannot express our appreciation of such kind and personal interest."[11] Roger and Grace Watkins continued to be involved with the college, and moved to Aurora in 1920; in 1927 Roger joined the college's board of directors, serving until 1971, all but the first two years also as the board's secretary.[15] By 1930 Deacon White had remarried, and with his wife Alice moved into the Watkins home at 221 Calumet Avenue, next door to the college president.[16]

White died at age 91 in the early morning of July 7, 1939, at the Watkins' summer cottage at Rude Camp, the college's retreat on the

Baseball Hall of Fame that summer, having been completely overlooked in the voting for inductees. His funeral was held at Aurora's Healy Chapel, and he was buried at Restland Cemetery in Mendota.[10] He was survived by his second wife Alice, who had been staying in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, at the time of his death, by his younger brother George,[10] and by his daughter Grace (1882–1956[12]) and her husband Roger (1888–1977[18]
).

Hall of Fame

In August 2008, White was named as one of ten former players who began their careers before 1943 to be considered by the

2009; although he fell short in final voting, he received the most votes of any player whose career ended before 1940. In 2010, the Nineteenth Century Committee of the Society for American Baseball Research
named White the year's Overlooked 19th Century Baseball Legend — a 19th-century player, manager, executive or other baseball personality not yet inducted into the Hall of Fame.

On December 3, 2012, the National Baseball Hall of Fame announced that he was elected to the Hall of Fame by the new Pre-Integration Era Committee (pre-1947 era), receiving 14 out of 16 votes; he and two others elected by the Committee were inducted on July 28, 2013,[19] with his acceptance speech given by his great-grandson Jerry Watkins, the son of White's grandson Daniel.[20] With over 166 years between his birth and date of induction (and nearly three-quarters of a century after his death), White is the "oldest" person ever inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

See also

References

  1. ^ National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum: "Hank O'Day, Jacob Ruppert, Deacon White Elected to national Baseball Hall of Fame by Pre-Integration Committee", December 3, 2012 [1] Archived 2018-11-08 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved June 23, 2013
  2. ^ Eighth Census of the United States, United States census, 1860; Town of Caton, Steuben, New York; roll M653 863, page 172, line 18–25.
  3. ^ Ninth Census of the United States, United States census, 1870; Town of Caton, Steuben, New York; roll M593 1094, page 26, line 5–11.
  4. ^ 1850 United States Census, United States census, 1850; Town of Caton, Steuben, New York; roll M432 598, page 61B, line 35–38.
  5. ^ Tenth United States Census, United States census, 1880; Town of Caton, Steuben, New York; roll T9 933, page 17, line 26, enumeration district 166.
  6. ^ George was the only one of James' siblings to survive him.
  7. ^ Tenth United States Census, United States census, 1880; Town of Caton, Steuben, New York; roll T9 933, page 17, line 28, enumeration district 166.
  8. ^ The 1880 census indicated that all his grandparents were born in New York or Pennsylvania, likely in the 1780s or early 1790s given his parents' ages.
  9. ^ Williams, Joe. "Deacon White". Society for American Baseball Research. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
  10. ^
    The Aurora Daily Beacon-News
    . July 7, 1939. p. 11.
  11. ^ a b "In Memoriam". The Pharos (Annual Number). Aurora College: 26. 1914.
  12. ^ a b "Obituaries". The Aurora Daily Beacon-News. September 12, 1956. p. 2.
  13. ^ Twelfth Census of the United States, United States census, 1900; Buffalo, Erie, New York; roll T623 1032, page 22B, line 60–62, enumeration district 210.
  14. ^ "In Memory Of: Roger A. Watkins" (PDF). HowieAndMyra.com. 1977. p. 5. Retrieved 25 May 2013.
  15. ^ "In Memory Of: Roger A. Watkins" (PDF). HowieAndMyra.com. 1977. p. 7. Retrieved 25 May 2013.
  16. ^ Fifteenth Census of the United States, United States census, 1930; Aurora, Kane, Illinois; roll T626 523, page 18A, line 16–23, enumeration district 45–8.
  17. ^ "Celebrate Baseball Centennial". The Aurora Daily Beacon-News. July 9, 1939. p. 11.
  18. ^ "Former AC leader Roger Watkins dies". The Beacon-News. July 27, 1977. p. 4.
  19. ^ Jacob Ruppert, Hank O'Day, Deacon White elected to Baseball Hall of Fame | MLB.com: News
  20. ^ "Jerry Watkins Speech Transcript" (PDF). BaseballHall.org. Retrieved July 30, 2013.[permanent dead link]

External links

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